John Bird, Quadrante, Museo Civico di Modena

John Bird (1709–1776) was a British

mathematical instrument A mathematical instrument is a tool or device used in the study or practice of mathematics. In geometry, construction of various proofs was done using only a compass (drafting), compass and straightedge; arguments in these proofs relied only on i ...

maker. He was born at

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

. He came to London in 1740 where he worked for

Jonathan Sisson Jonathan Sisson (1690 – 1747) was a prominent English instrument maker, the inventor of the modern theodolite with a sighting telescope for surveying, and a leading maker of astronomical instruments. Career Jonathan Sisson was born in Lincoln ...

and

George Graham George Graham (born 30 November 1944), nicknamed "Stroller", is a Scottish former Association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. In his successful playing career, he made 455 appearances in England's Football ...

.''The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge'', Vol III, (1847) London, Charles Knight, p.327. By 1745 he had his own business in the Strand. Bird was commissioned to make a brass quadrant 8

feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

across for the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where it was mounted on 16 February 1750, and where it is still preserved. Soon after, duplicates were ordered for France, Spain and Russia. Mural Quadrant - by John Bird - London 1773

Mural Quadrant - by John Bird - London 1773

Bird supplied the astronomer

James Bradley James Bradley (1692–1762) was an English astronomer and priest who served as the third Astronomer Royal from 1742. He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light (1725–1728), and the nutation of the ...

with further instruments of such quality that the commissioners of longitude paid him £500 (a huge sum) on condition that he take on an apprentice for 7 years and produce in writing upon oath, a full account of his working methods. This was the origin of Bird's two treatises ''The Method of Dividing Mathematical Instruments'' (1767) and ''The Method of Constructing Mural Quadrants'' (1768). Both had a foreword from the astronomer-royal

Nevil Maskelyne Nevil Maskelyne (; 6 October 1732 – 9 February 1811) was the fifth British Astronomer Royal. He held the office from 1765 to 1811. He was the first person to scientifically measure the mass of the planet Earth. He created the ''British Nau ...

. When the Houses of Parliament burned down in 1834, the standard

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.914 ...

s of 1758 and 1760, both constructed by Bird, were destroyed. Bird, with his fellow

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

savant William Emerson, makes an appearance in ''

Mason & Dixon ''Mason & Dixon'' is a postmodernist novel by American author Thomas Pynchon, published in 1997. It presents a fictionalized account of the collaboration between Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in their astronomical and surveying exploits in th ...

'', the acclaimed novel by

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...

References

External links

Biography on South Seas Companion
* https://web.archive.org/web/20040317000544/http://albinoni.brera.unimi.it/HEAVENS/MUSEO/Schede/app1.html 1709 births 1776 deaths 18th-century British astronomers British scientific instrument makers People from Bishop Auckland {{UK-astronomer-stub

References

Further reading

External links